Meatballs and Tardises

I'm in the middle of reorganising my home office after getting a new window put into the East wall to let more light, heat and good Chi in. Now that the the old carpet is gone and the 1960's fireplace has been ripped out, the new light and warm wooden floor make the whole place feel different - better somehow.

And as part of the new design I wanted to get another Billy Bookcase for my ever expanding collection of home study programmes and manuals, so it was a family lunchtime trip to worship at the temple of the great god Ikea today...

What a lesson in marketing and customer value. Right at the door the nice man was patiently, and not pushily, standing beside the stand offering the Ikea Family loyalty card - get this - free tea and coffee in the restaurant any weekday, discounts on selected products [which change every month], discounts at the restaurant up til 11 am [the full breakfast is 99p]. So I signed up. No monthly fee, no hidden costs.

Then we discover that the creche is FREE so young Luke got to swim in a pool of pink bouncy balls and play with a bunch of his wee peers for an hour, leaving us free to browse the store.

Of course there's that hypnotic "yellow brick road" guided pathway thing Ikea does, and the public shamble in trance around the maze in a slow one way trickle. And lo there are the Billy bookcases - just what I'm after.

One flat trolley later and we're down at the aisles piling cardboard clad components onto the cart, only later realising that the barcodes are upside down and the cashier will need a trapeze and gymnastic prowess to scan them.

I back the car up to the loading bay and my family turns into a Citroen advert adjusting seats, doing geometric calculations in my head wishing that the car would become a tardis and suddenly get bigger on the inside.

Car stuffed, then so are we with those delicios meatballs made from who knows what but they taste great. All in all a great way to get free nursery care and a cheap breakfast. Ikea will soon be a mecca for single parents!

But what a great lesson in adding value - free parking, loyalty card for repeat custom, free beverages, free child care, and a real education in turnkey sales and fulfilment.

Go for a trip to Ikea and then model them - what do they do that you could do in your business?